The Alien Mind (free)

Civic Duty

RIVI WOKE, SITTING ON THE LEATHER seat of a vehicle, propped against the window. She lifted her head and looked around to find Dan sitting next to her and staring out the opposite window. He turned toward her in surprise.

"That was quite some nap you took there. You hardly moved a muscle. Mr. "I-don't-have-a-name" up there suggested we stop and see if you were still alive," Dan joked as he motioned toward the man driving the vehicle.

"I haven't strained my abilities that far in a long time. My mental and physical functions shut down. I am neither a healer nor an element shifter, so lifting Bill and going through all that fire really tired me out," Rivi answered, thinking over the memory.

"Plus, you have probably been a bit out of practice since you got here since you were trying to keep your identity a secret," Dan replied.

"Yes," Rivi answered. "It felt good to have a reason not to hide."

"Well, you certainly gave those kids something to talk about," the driver said, glancing in the rear view mirror.

"Earth had to be brought out of the dark sometime. I just didn't think it would be this soon," Rivi added.

"Wouldn't sooner have been better than later?" Dan asked.

"I don't know," Rivi replied. "I'm not a futurity histographer like Ankh, but I do know that this meeting with the President is now really important."

#

Two jet-black SUVs rolled through a guarded gate surrounding a facility that seemed to be located in the middle of nowhere. In all directions, all that was visible was sky and grass—miles and miles of grass. When the vehicles finally came to a stop, Rivi and Dan were escorted into the large, one-story, sandstone-covered facility. The men flashed security badges each had produced from single-fold wallets in their suit jackets. Glancing at them, the guard at the front desk nodded.

The men led Rivi and Dan through two double doors into a large room. Tables and chairs were organized into sections, each of which played host to a wide assortment of papers, lab materials, and computers. Rivi was happy to become mentally aware that the computers were in fine working order, except, of course, for a normal handful of small problems that just about every earth computer seemed to be plagued with. Rivi shut them out of her amalgamatory link when they became too distracting. Why humans hadn't advanced in their computer technology was easy to see. They could hardly keep their current machines working without messing them up somehow.

Along the left-hand wall there was a huge mosaic map of the night sky. Large square pieces were missing, showing the areas the scientists hadn't yet searched.

Rivi, intrigued by the picture, veered off from the main group that was walking down the center of the room. She turned and walked along a row of tables toward the giant mosaic and simply stared, as if through a window. The group continued toward the back of the room without her.

"Where is she?" a new voice asked carrying a gentle authority.

"She's ... She was right here just a moment ago, sir!" one of the suited escorts stammered.

"We'll find her, sir," another one of the escorts said.

Dan turned around, wondering where Rivi had gone. He saw Rivi, farther down, staring at the mosaic.

"No need. She's over there," Dan answered with a slightly lowered voice, mystified.

The new man walked over to Dan and, seeing what Rivi was looking at, motioned toward one of the three scientists present in the room. The scientist threaded his way around the tables and walked over to Dan and the man.

"Yes, Mr. President?" the scientist asked.

"Is that what I think it is?" the President asked.

"That is a photo mosaic of our deep-sky observations, sir."

"I thought as much. Young man?" the President asked, turning to look at Dan.

"Sir? Mr. President?" Daniel asked, not exactly knowing what to say.

"I am assuming that you are Miss Rivinaig's friend?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good, come with me." the President commanded. "The rest of you, stay here."

The President followed Dan along the wall beside the desk sections toward Rivi. Rivi glanced for a moment at Dan and then back at the many stars in front of her.

"I've been looking every night from the day I got here, but I can't find it because of all the light and air pollution, never mind the weather, in Earth's skies. Earth's scientist found it, though, even if it seems they never knew about us," Rivi said, pointing at a star at her eye level. "This, Dan, this is where Aun is located."

"It looks so small and far away," Dan said quietly, looking back at her.

"Yes," Rivi answered, whispering.

"With our new-found knowledge that other species are out there, perhaps soon it won't seem so small," the President said, which effectively brought Rivi's mind back to the present.

"Oh, hello, President Malcarosi. I'm sorry for being so distracted," Rivi apologized, turning to face him.

"An intergalactic guest is allowed certain privileges. One of them is becoming distracted by the stars," President Malcarosi answered with an exaggerated bow and a gallant wave of his hand, as though Rivi were a foreign diplomat.

Rivi smiled and shook her head with a laugh. Dan frowned, not understanding the joke. Then, as it dawned on him, he, too, smiled and rolled his eyes.

"Come, I've heard you two have had a busy day. We should sit," the President said, leading Rivi and Dan back to the far end of the room where the others were waiting.

One of the scientists pulled a chair out for the President from along the wall. Rivi seated herself at a nearby desk and turned her chair to face his. The others dispersed around the room to various areas, although one man stayed just off to the President's right shoulder. Rivi concluded that the men in the dark suits were the President's security men.

"So, Miss Rivinaig, I hope your stay on Earth has been pleasant so far," The President said politely.

"Yes, sir, it has. Learning about the United States government from a teacher on another planet is one thing. To actually see first-hand the privileges, diverse lifestyles, and freedoms that its government is able to grant its citizens, I understand now what my guardian father, Ankh, meant when he told us the idea of freedom is a truly amazing thing."

"It is at that. Obviously, you seem to know a lot more about us than we do of you. Could you perhaps tell us a bit about yourself?" the President replied, sitting back in his chair.

"I feel like I'm being interviewed, and by the President of the United States, for that matter," Rivi answered with a chuckle.

"I'm sorry," President Malcarosi replied with a smile. "I'm afraid we don't know much about you. What we do know is a bit sketchy. So much was kept under wraps back then that much of the information is lost. I didn't expect you to be so young."

"I am the oldest. Fortunately, many of the children are much younger," Rivi said with a nod, understanding the President's position.

"Why is this fortunate?" Malcarosi asked, puzzled.

"They have little to no memory of what happened," Rivi said.

"Do you remember?"

"Yes, almost everything," Rivi answered, lowering her eyes.

"What happened? Did they force you to leave Earth, or did you go peacefully?"

Rivi looked at the floor and closed her eyes as a shudder ran up her spine. She then looked up, over her shoulder.

"Where's Dan?" she asked, addressing the security officer on the President's right.

"He asked to be directed to the restroom a few moments ago," the man said.

Rivi took a deep breath and looked down at her hands, folded in her lap.

"We were kidn*pped," she said quietly, carefully suppressing the painful memories that threatened to overwhelm her.

"But you weren't always captives."

"No, we weren't," Rivi answered, brightening a bit. "We were held captive by the Aruk, a separatist faction on Aun. After two years, the Aunantet managed to rescue us, and then, because they couldn't make contact with Earth, they decided to care for us. They taught us as if we were both human and Aunantet. We were given families and lived normal lives."

"How did you come to be here?"

"The Aruk attacked. I stayed behind to ensure that the children's ships could launch. With the Aruk closing in, there was no way for me to safely follow the other children. We received the message from Earth, and I traveled here hyper-dimensionally."

"I'm not quite sure I understand. What happened to the other children? How many are there?"

"There are 149. They are currently running from the Aruk," Rivi said sadly. "The planet we were planning to use as a safe haven has been compromised. They currently have no place to go."

"Perhaps we could help," President Malcarosi said. "We could find homes for them here on Earth. They would also be easier to defend if they were all in one place."

"I agree, Mr. President, and I'm sure Earth wouldn't be alone in defending them. Officials from many other planets have met a few of the children. They would more than likely be on our side if it came to protecting the children. They would make great allies," Rivi answered, sharing her vision of the future.

President Malcarosi smiled, realizing that the future would start all too soon.

"I'm sure many changes will happen almost overnight, as news spreads that we are not alone in the universe," he replied with a chuckle.

Rivi nodded with a grin, remembering the incident at the school earlier. A door opened and closed behind her and she looked over her shoulder to see Dan coming up the center of the room.

"Sorry I've been so long, Rivi. I tripped and scraped my knee. I had to go back and clean up," Dan said, as he walked over to Rivi and sat in the chair next to her.

"Let me see," she said, getting up from her chair and then kneeling at his feet.

"I'll send for a first-aid kit," the President said, standing and signaling one of his men standing idly on one side of the room.

"There's no need, Mr. President," Rivi answered quietly. "I can handle this. Dan's already done a pretty good job of cleaning this out."

Rivi lifted her hand and held it palm down above Daniel's knee. She then closed her eyes and focused on the shallow scrape.

President Malcarosi watched with confusion as the skin on Daniel's knee started to knit itself back together. Amazed even further, Malcarosi watched as every sign of the cut seemed to vanish. Not even a scar was left.

Rivi opened her eyes and sat back on her feet. She rolled her head to stretch her tired neck, closed her eyes once more at a small moment of dizziness, and reminded herself that comp amalgamators should stick to computers. She smiled and looked back up at Dan as she waved her hand over the torn fabric of his akat. Daniel looked slightly embarrassed.

"No harm done," Rivi replied, smiling as she united the atoms in the torn fabric once more.

"How did you ...?" the President asked, backing away slightly as Rivi stood and returned to her seat beside Dan.

Rivi hesitated and looked over at Dan, who met her gaze, and then turned to respond to the president's question.

"Rivi, along with the other children, has learned quite a bit. They are ... different," Daniel said.

President Malcarosi sat in his chair, looked over at Daniel, and then back at Rivi.

"I'd heard something about that, but I don't know how much I actually believed at the time."

"I'm sorry to have disturbed you," Rivi said.

"Not at all. That's okay. What is life without a few surprises?" President Malcarosi said with a smile.

Dan chuckled inwardly. "A few surprises" was largely understating a typical day with Rivi.

At that moment, a scientist rushed into the room and went out the door at the other end.

"I wonder what's—" the President started, as he looked the way the scientist had run.

He didn't finish his question though. The President's gaze had fallen back to Rivi who had closed her eyes as if listening to something. She frowned, gripped her head in her hands, and fell off her chair to her knees. She was grimacing in pain, the source of which eluded the President.

Dan, the president, and the president's security man rushed to Rivi's side. Dan knelt and placed a hand on Rivi's shoulder in concern. A few scientists ran into the room arguing loudly with each other as they went to their computers. Having had enough, Rivi jumped up, causing Dan, the president, and his guard to step back a pace.

"Quiet!" Rivi yelled, spreading her arms wide.

Everyone in the room looked at her, shocked. One scientist turned back around after a second and tried to proceed with what he had been doing.

"The computer will not respond to you," Rivi replied, as she walked over to the nearest computer.

The scientist, seeing she was right, stood and demanded some explanation.

"What did you ...?" he stammered.

"Shh," Rivi replied.

She closed her eyes, approaching the nearest computer.

"A message is coming in from your colony on Mars," she said to the stunned-looking scientist seated in front of the computer with which she was amalgamated.

"Yes, but we are having a problem receiving it," the scientist said.

"Won't the National Aeronautics and Space Administration be receiving this?" Dan asked.

"Yes, but they are having the same problem. Something is wrong with the satellite orbiting the Earth. The scientists are trying to see if they can fix the problem from down here. But, as they will soon see, the problem is too complicated for them to fix from down here," Rivi said.

"How ...?" a scientist asked from across the room.

"Your computer told me," Rivi replied. "Will you show me your satellite dishes?"

"We don't really have the time for tours, miss," the scientist replied.

"I don't want a tour!" Rivi snapped. "I can help you fix your problem, if you will show me to your satellite dishes. And never mind 'how,' we don't have time. I think there may be something wrong on Mars," Rivi replied, as the scientist sitting in front of her opened his mouth once more.

"I'll show you," the scientist said quietly as he stood.

"Thank you very much."

The scientist led the whole group outside to a large open area. A dozen towering dishes stood in a line. Rivi walked out to them. She held up her arms and reached out with her mind. After she repaired and readjusted the misbehaving satellite, she received the message clearly. Slightly dismayed, Rivi walked back to the scientists.

"As for how I did it—I'm a comp amalgamator," Rivi said. "The satellite is fixed, but apparently, something has happened. The colony on Mars has withstood a critical amount of damage. They're calling for assistance."

"We'd better call NASA," the President said to his guards standing behind him.

"You can do that, but I'm going to go help the people in that colony," Rivi announced.

President Malcarosi raised his eyebrows and turned to look disbelievingly at Rivi.

"I'm sure our guys can handle this. You're just a kid Rivi,"

"I may look fourteen years old but I am certainly not 'just a kid.'"

"Any help we would send would normally be sent from the lunar colony. They are set up for that sort of trip, we aren't," the President argued.

"I already have a faster way to get there," Rivi smiled.

President Malcarosi considered Rivi for just a moment longer before slowly letting out a deep breath.

"Alright. If you think you are up to it." President Malcarosi said, finally giving in. "I'll have someone call ahead to let them know you are coming. Is there anything you think you will need?"

"Dan, will you come? I may need your help."

Dan nodded.

"Someone will have to call my foster home, though. I know the school called them before we left, but they'll still be worried because of that fire this afternoon."

"I'll personally make the call," President Malcarosi said, nodding.

"You might want to have one of your aides call them. They're both Democrats," Dan joked.

The President nodded with a chuckle. Appeased, Daniel followed Rivi as she walked back out to the middle of the field away from the satellites. Rivi used her mind and pulled the silver cube through the wall of the hollow sphere that hung on the rope around her neck. She placed it on the ground and expanded it.

"Do you have confidence in me?" Rivi asked Dan as she looked over at him.

He looked from her to the cube, swallowed, and then nodded. Rivi took his arm and led him through the side of the cube. Rivi then twisted the cylinder on the bracelet around her wrist, and the cube was lit with a bright green glow.

"How will we get to Mars?" Dan asked.

"You might want to sit on the floor, I'm not exactly used to doing this yet." Rivi replied, as she manipulated the cube until it was floating upwards into the air.

Dan looked around him at the sides of the ship, as he sensed the cube rising faster than an elevator.

"Whoa!" Daniel exclaimed, when they escaped Earth's gravity and he started to float up off the floor.

Rivi smiled at his obvious surprise. As her hair began to float around her, she changed her body's normal magnetic charge so that her feet would be attracted to the cube's floor. She changed the cube into a ship, which elicited another exclamation of surprise from Dan, floating above her. Rivi let him enjoy his freedom from gravity while she formatted her ship to be compatible with her computer. It took her a few minutes before she was satisfied. She then sat in the chair at the front of the ship, took out her triangular computer and plugged it into the specially-designed docking station in front of her seat.

Rivi looked at the other seat beside her and then back at Daniel, who was watching from the ceiling. Frowning for a moment, she created a seatbelt for the seat and waved a hand to Daniel.

"You might want to come sit. You'll get hurt if you come crashing from the ceiling as we land on Mars," Rivi said, grinning.

"Right," Dan replied.

He pushed off the ceiling with his foot, grabbed the top of the chair, and pulled himself into it before strapping in.

"From this point on, Dan, it is imperative that you think of nothing but Mars. This is only the second time I've traveled this way, if you don't concentrate on Mars I can't promise we won't end up on the other side of the Galaxy," Rivi said. Dan nodded in acknowledgment.

Rivi folded the ship into hyperspace and then, thinking about Mars, she brought the ship back out again.

"We are going to try to land now. I don't know how smooth this will be," Rivi said in a shaky voice.

"We're already at Mars?"

"Yes," Rivi replied.

Rivi opened her computer and focused on the screen, which showed the desert landscape of Mars. Reaching with her mind through her computer, she manipulated the panels on the wings to slow their descent and control where they landed. A few minutes passed, and they finally came to rest on the landing pad of the station. A motion-sensor-controlled airlock extended out to where the standard Earth shuttle door would be. Rivi and Dan walked through the wall.

Rivi decided to leave her ship outside and headed down the hall that connected the airlock with the station. Dan followed close behind her. As they passed through a set of doors, they were confronted by a stressed-looking man in a uniform.

"You must be Rivinaig and Daniel."

"Yes, sir," Rivi answered politely.

"My name is Herman Schultz. I am the head official of this station. I just received word that you'd be coming to help us. I must say that I had my doubts when I heard that you two were kids. However, I also didn't expect you to get here so fast."

"All the facts must be present before a conclusion is made, Mr. Schultz. Or, as most humans may say, 'I am no ordinary child.'" Rivi replied with a polite smile. "Where is your problem?"

"Right this way," Mr. Schultz replied, leading them down a series of hallways. "There was a construction accident in Area 5."

"Punctured dome?" Rivi asked.

"Yes! Some civilians and prison workers are trapped in there. The door's security features kicked in before they could all be evacuated. The atmosphere levels, although falling, are still safe for now, but it won't be long before they are down to critical levels. We still can't get the doors open," Mr. Schultz replied. "Everyone else has been ordered to stay in their quarters to keep them out of harm's way."

Rivi nodded, understanding his reasoning. As they walked down the fourth hall, Rivi noticed a few men and women working on a door's electrical controls and trying to cut through the door with torches. As she approached, she could see through the window in the door that the people inside were obviously getting worried. Rivi c****d her head to see the focus of their concern, a long thin c***k in the metal dome was allowing precious atmosphere to bleed out of the sealed room.

A dozen or so people sat among the debris of what looked to be a collapsed crane, while a few brave souls attempted to climb the support frames of the walls to try to close the c***k.

"Area 5 is right through here," Mr. Schultz replied, pointing to the set of double doors Rivi had been looking through.

The men and women working on the door all glanced behind them for only a second before resuming their work.

"Any luck, Gwen?" Mr. Schultz asked one of the workers who was working on the electrical circuits of the doors.

The woman, who appeared to be about twenty years of age, straightened slowly. She rolled her cramped neck as she did.

"No, Dad, we still can't get them open!" Gwen replied, as she smacked the door frame in frustration and then turned to look at her father and the newcomers. "Did you get in touch with the techies on Earth?"

"They sent us some help," Mr. Schultz replied glibly, as he c****d his head toward Rivi and Daniel.

"Two kids?" Miss Gwen asked in disbelief. "What on Armstrong's Crater could they possibly do to these doors that we haven't tried?"

Rivi closed her eyes. The control panel behind Gwen came to life, and the door opened with a swish. Ignoring all the others in the hallway, who were gaping at her like a school of fish out of water, she gestured toward Dan, who followed her into the large, domed room. Bare structural skeletons of rooms and halls stood unattended and unfinished as the workers of Area 5 shuffled among the debris.

With everyone talking at once, the noise level was approaching migraine levels.

"We can't have that happen," Rivi murmured to herself.

"All right, everyone stop talking and pay attention!" Rivi commanded to the whole area in a loud voice so she would be heard above the commotion.

The incessant talking lowered into a curious murmuring, as the workers struggled to find the person who had just spoken.

"I said, stop talking!" Rivi commanded again.

She had been informed earlier by the colony's main computer that many of the menial workers were prison convicts. They were being put to work in a controlled environment, where they could still help humanity instead of sitting in prison.

It is imperative that I take care of this situation accordingly. Other innocent people live in this station too, Rivi thought. She shut the door to the area to keep the workers detained.

The group of workers gradually fell to whispers and then to nothing at all. As everyone fell silent, Rivi pointed Dan toward a first-aid kit attached by the door and told him to go make sure everyone was okay. She then let her attention fall to the few workers hanging onto the support rafters, still trying to climb up to fix the deadly tear in the metal that was sucking priceless oxygen out of the station.

"Come down," Rivi ordered in a cool tone.

The normally stubborn workers complied, more out of curiosity than obedience. Even the technicians in the doorway were staring through the windows to see what the fourteen-year-old would do.

"You have nothing to fear from this simple c***k," Rivi said with such conviction that no one thought to argue.

Rivi looked up at the metal walls of the dome and focused on the c***k that shone with pale red light from the Martian environment outside, which was threatening to allow all of the oxygen in the room to escape and asphyxiate everyone. Rivi searched for something metallic to stand on and changed its atoms to support her as she floated up toward the metal holes in the wall. Closing her eyes and raising her hands toward the holes, she mentally pulled the ragged metal edges back together and heated them until they were sealed tightly.

Rivi opened her eyes and smiled in satisfaction at the repair.

Dan came up to Rivi as she floated down from the repair site.

"Most of the workers have only minor injuries," Daniel replied.

"Good," Rivi said. "I am not a healer. I don't have the energy to take care of all of them. We better let the people of this station get back to doing their jobs. The medics can take care of the injured."

Rivi used her mind to unlock the double doors to the area to allow the medics and security officials, waiting out in the hall, into the area.

"Still feeling under the weather from the school fire incident?" Dan asked in concern as he watched Rivi rub her temples.

"A bit. I have to keep reminding myself to take it easy," Rivi said with a slight shrug.

"You sure helped these people out of a tough situation, though," Dan exclaimed. "A day with you is certainly not very boring!"

"Never thought you'd be on Mars this soon, huh?" Rivi asked with a chuckle, as she and Dan headed toward the double doors.

"Nope," Dan replied, laughing as the doors sheathed open and he stepped out into the hall with Rivi.

Mr. Schultz was still standing in the hall.

"You surprised us all here, Rivinaig. I'd love to ask you how you did it, but there's work to be done," Mr. Schultz said with a sigh. "Oh, the president wishes to speak to you, when you get a chance. There's a communications terminal at the end of the hall."

"Thank you, sir," Rivi said, as she and Dan turned and headed for the terminal.

#

Dan frowned as Rivi ended her talk with the president. He had asked to talk to Rivi privately, and Dan stood a few feet away to be polite. From Rivi's expression, the discussion was about something troubling.

"Is everything okay?" Dan asked in concern, seeing her step away from the terminal in a daze.

"Apparently, Earth sends convicted criminals to sites where they can be of use instead of harm to human society," Rivi answered.

"Yeah, they've been doing that for some time now. Many of those workers in Area 5 were past offenders," Dan answered.

"I know. President Malcarosi thinks I should meet someone who is being held in the detainee housing area," Rivi explained, hugging her arms across her stomach.

"Do you want me to come?" Dan asked, a bit concerned that meeting this person seemed to cause Rivi distress.

"No, I'll be fine. A bit of my past needs to be faced today. You may want to find Mr. Schultz again. Ask him if the colony has some spare rooms. We will probably have to stay the night. I don't think I'm going to be up for any hyper-dimensional travel tonight," Rivi said, waving her hand.

Dan watched in concern as she walked away, down the hall toward Area 8: Detainee Housing.

#

Rivi entered through the double doors of Area 8. The doors were locked, but she paid the computer no heed and walked right through the middle of the entryway. She was met with rows and rows of cube shapes. Each one was a type of dorm room and had no windows. The walls of each cube were pushed almost seamlessly end to end into rows. Rivi followed the directions she had found in the computer system. She paused before a cube dorm halfway down the third row and verified the names of the occupants with the colony's computer.

Rivi's face was emotionless and cold as she walked through the locked door into the dorm. Two sets of bunk beds were lined up along the far wall and the wall to her left. Four women stared at her in surprise. Rivi quietly observed the features of each one. One woman in particular caused Rivi's memories to resurface, and she closed her eyes. The woman's hair was thin and limp, her brown eyes carried a haunted look about them.

"Is one of you Alice Ernestine?," Rivi asked the group of women quietly.

The women looked at her as if she was crazy and went back to what they were doing without a word, but the woman with the haunted, brown eyes stood, confirming Rivi's suspicions. Rivi's breath caught in her throat. Fearing her knees would not support her, Rivi sat on the hard, cold floor. Taking a deep breath, she beckoned for the woman standing in front of her to do the same.

"Mrs. Alice Ernestine, have you ever had a child?" Rivi asked, as a void formed behind her eyes.

"No ... Well, yes. Once, when I was younger," Mrs. Alice said.

"Was it a boy or a girl?"

"A girl."

"What happened to her?" Rivi asked, already knowing.

"I lost her," Mrs. Alice said.

"You mean you gave her away," Rivi said.

Alice paused.

"Yes. There were these freak storms in the area that night. We'd never had tornadoes before then in that area. The child was in the living room when I heard the sirens. I headed into the living room to get her as two creatures came through the patio door off the living room. Before I got to the girl, they told me that if I would let them take her, they would allow me to live," she explained. "The tornado warning sirens blared on and the rain was loud against the windows. I turned around and ran back toward the kitchen cellar."

"How old was the child?" Rivi asked.

"Hmm, I believe she was a little older than two." Mrs. Alice said, shrugging her shoulders.

"Do you remember what happened next?" Rivi choked.

"No," the lady replied, frowning. "All I remember is the child crying, and a few minutes later a huge pain ran up and down my spine. When I woke up, the child was gone. The only other thing that the aliens took besides the child was a book of research papers my husband had put together about the stuff he was working on at his job. "

Rivi looked down at her knees for a few moments. She studied the lines in the floor as she fought to hide her disgust. The coldness of the floor mingled together with the emotional pain that bubbled inside of her.

"You didn't even try to keep them from taking her? She was your daughter!" Rivi looked up, suddenly angry at Alice.

The lady waved her hand and leaned against the bunk bed. "No, I was too young, anyway, to take care of her. I had other things I wanted to do with my life."

"Where is Dad, I mean, her father?"

"I don't know. I haven't seen him for eleven years. He worked long hours at some sort of research facility. The child was the only reason I stayed with him," Alice answered glibly. "I've answered your questions, now how about you answer mine. Who are you, why do you care about my past, and how did you walk right through the door?"

"I walked through the door by changing its atoms, and I care about your past because it's mine as well," Rivi answered quietly. She stood and looked down at the shocked woman. "I'd also like to let you know that I wouldn't ever give my child up like that."

"What do you know about anything?" Alice asked.

"As you've managed to destroy most of your life, I suppose I know quite a bit more than you do." Rivi said. Her eyes went dull again, and she turned and walked resolutely back through the dorm door.

Rivi hung her head, tears streaming down her face. She now knew that another section of her nightmares, a part that she had always refused to believe, was actually true. Rivi stumbled down one hall of the Mars colony after another. She wanted to keep walking until the pain went away. Suddenly, a hand touched her shoulder.

Rivi looked up at Dan, her eyes drying as tears would no longer surface. Dan looked confused and worried. Rivi managed a feeble smile.

"What happened, Rivi?" Dan asked. "Who did you go see?"

"I'm not certain that I feel much like talking about it. I'll be fine. A good night's sleep will be the best thing."

"Okay," Dan replied, confused. "Our rooms are down there. Yours is number 36. Mine is number 38."

"Good," Rivi said in a worn-out voice. "See you in the morning, Dan."

Dan frowned with worry as he watched Rivi walk down to her room and close the door.

#

Rivi leaned against the door, looking absently around the room. It was an eclectically furnished suite. Nothing seemed to match with anything else. While looking around, she checked for anything breakable and stored the various objects: desk lamps, a glass dish, and a few cups from the bathroom into the empty chest at the end of the large bed by the far wall. She had a feeling her nightmares would be worse tonight.

She climbed into bed and gave in to the sleep that she so desperately needed. Her mind allowed her a decent seven hours of sleep before pitching her into the worst dream she had experienced in years.